How do we distinguish the angst and insecurities felt by most teenagers from the pain resulting from bullying? Does all teasing between kids warrant prohibition, or is there room for some joking and fooling around? When things clearly go too far, who should intervene?

Kids can be mean. Perhaps it's part of their exploration of boundaries and their power in social circles. As parents, we can teach our own kids the importance of kindness, respect and treating others as we want them to be treated. And, we can guide them to stand up to bullies.

Knowing tough moments will become more often in the future is difficult, but for now, I'm focusing on the present. I'm enjoying the innocence.

In real life, your child's tormentor might be a 6-year-old girl sporting dimples and a laugh that peals like a church bell. And your child might not flee from her, but instead run into her arms for a hug, ready to play, hoping every time that it won't devolve into intimidation and hurt feelings.

My son is competitive, and he is certainly touchier than my daughter when it comes to criticism. He's identical to me. I wonder if the fight for his name is the source of his ambition. It certainly had something to do with mine.

Although Karen Klein agrees with the punishment doled out to the boys who bullied her, as a psychologist, I have some very different thoughts about the consequences.

Several parts of this documentary made me bristle with fury. I felt both protective of these helpless victims and angry that the adults in charge were mostly dismissive.

The school bus is one of the places that kids get teased the most and I believe that this is partly due to the older kids having so much unsupervised access to the younger kids.

Of all the reasons I've heard from people who oppose same-sex parenting, perhaps the most oft-repeated is that the child who will endure teasing about the comparative oddity of her family. As one person recently asked, "Did you ever think about the needs of the child?"

Bullying is a particularly vexing characteristic to correct because we often don't see it -- or, we don't want to see it. No one wants to believe their own child can be mean.